Escape Route
by keotey1228
Summary: An escape from a monster attack proves to be just as deadly for the son of Zeus (in this fic only).


**Percy is a son of Zeus in this fic, but not much is different. It takes place before the Heroes of Olympus series. I know little about Macy's Day Parade and the Empire State Building. Flames will be used to make s'mores.**

-PJO-PJO-

Percy and Annabeth had just gotten out of a taxi outside the Empire State Building. They had gotten an Iris message from Chiron, who said that they had been summoned to Olympus.

"I'll never get used to the thought that THE Olympus is just above the Empire State Building." Annabeth looks at Percy to see him looking straight up at the sky.

"Well," she elbowed him and he looked at her. "Get used to it, Seaweed Brain."

He gave her a little chuckle and they walked into the lobby they normally walked into. It was the same man that was always there. After going to Olympus a few times before, and him finding out that Percy was the son of Zeus, the man remembered Percy. He looked up from his book for only a few seconds before jerking a thumb over to point to the elevator.

Once the elevator was ascending, Annabeth turns to Percy. "You know what you should try doing?"

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Get better grades?"

"Yes," Annabeth smirked. "but, I was thinking more along of the lines of flying."

Percy gave her a bizarre look but before he could say anything, Annabeth spoke again. "I mean, Thalia can fly, even if she doesn't like to. You should try it."

"When would I ever need to fly? So I could put my underwear outside of my pants and soar around New York, fighting all the bad guys like in comic books?"

Annabeth sighed as the elevator doors started to open. "You never know when it could be useful and also-"

She stopped. Percy looked from her to outside the elevator and realized; they weren't in Olympus. They were at the top of the Empire State Building, the highest place where mortals can reach. Annabeth popped her head out and looked around.

"Why did we stop?" Percy asked her. She shook her head slowly. "I don't know... maybe Olympus is closed..?"

Percy scrunched his eyebrows together. "Why would it be closed? We were just summoned to go there?"

Annabeth popped back into the elevator. "I don't know anymore than you do about this."

They sat in silence for a few more seconds before Annabeth punched the 'Close Doors' button. The doors closed, but the elevator didn't move. She hit the 'Lobby' button, but the elevator stayed where it was.

"Maybe it's just the elevator?" Percy guessed. Annabeth scoffed and opened the doors to exit. They both walked out and started to walk around the observatory.

"Where is everyone?" Annabeth whispered to Percy. He hadn't noticed before, but there was only a few other groups of people around them.

"I don't..." He thought about it. "Oh. Today's the Macy's Day Parade. Everyone must be waiting for the parade to start."

Annabeth nodded and they just stood there, thinking about what to do.

"Maybe I could Iris message Chiron and ask..." She took out a golden drachma and almost instantly, an old woman in a big coat walked up to them.

"Excuse me dear," her scratchy voice surprised them. "Can I borrow that?"

Annabeth gave a quick glance to Percy before responding. "I'm sorry ma'am, but I need to make a call."

The old woman lifted her head and underneath her hood, and you could definitely tell she was not human. Percy put a hand on the small dagger he kept with him outside of camp, but didn't take it out just yet. There were still civilians around.

"It wasn't a suggestion." The monster swiped at the two of them and they dodged it, only to back up into another person. Taking a glance behind them, they saw a man that appeared to be the same kind of monster. Looking around, there was at least two others walking closer to them.

The man behind them tried to swipe at Percy but he ducked and moved out of the way. Annabeth took out her knife and backed away from the two monsters surrounding her. They walked closer to her and she started to fight them off while Percy started to fight off the other monsters in the room.

At the sound of yelling, the humans around them started to scream and tried to run towards the elevators. The few guards at the top attempted to get everyone to safety, but kept looking back at the fight behind them.

Percy got distracted by the people running and the alarms now blaring in the building that he got slashed by one of the monsters. He gave a small hiss and then hit the same monster, turning it to dust. The guards tried to intervene, but obviously knew that they would be overpowered by the number of monsters that was certainly more than the four Percy originally thought there were.

He didn't know what the guards were seeing, but he could tell they were wary about intervening in the fight. Percy slashed at one of the monsters he was fighting before he heard Annabeth yell at the guards to get everyone out of there. He didn't know if the guards had listened before he was blasted back out onto the outside area of the top floor. He stood up just in time to stop from getting hit from one of the monster's talons.

Looking to his right, Annabeth was also attempting to fight off three monsters. "Annabeth!"

She took her eyes off the monster for a second and nearly got stabbed. "What?!"

"What do we do?!" Percy managed to stab one of the monsters as it charged at him, and it went straight through the safety barriers, destroying that side of the tower. Percy took a quick look down to see that it was falling straight towards the parade. Percy side stepped another attack and moved away from the hole that would cause a very long fall.

"Well," Annabeth kicked a monster back and moved closer to him. "If you could fly, we could just jump off the building!"

He shook his head. "Would you like me to try it right now?!"

She didn't answer but she didn't need to. Percy couldn't fly and it would be suicide to try right now. After stabbing another monster and it turning to dust, Percy turned towards Annabeth and saw a big flash of yellow.

"What is that?" Annabeth kicked back the monster she was fighting and saw what he was looking at.

"Our escape route." She stabbed the monster that charged at her, and before another monster had a chance to get close, she jumped off the building onto a giant Spongebob float. Taking one last look at the monsters still left on the building, Percy jumped after her.

While Annabeth landed right on the top because she had jumped early enough, Percy jumped practically right on the float's side and slid down the float, screaming, until he grabbed a hold of a rope. He couldn't get solid grip on the rope until he reached the very end where a loop was tied to give a better grip for the people in the parade to hold onto.

Flipping himself around, Percy got a foot inside the loop so that he could stand up and hold on to the rope better. 'That monster that fell off the building must have hit some people to make them drop a float.' Looking around, Percy noticed a monster on the float's foot, climbing towards the top to undoubtedly fight Annabeth.

Her head popped over the side and she screamed out his name. He looked up. "I'm okay, but there's a monster coming right for you!"

He saw her head turn to where he was pointing and she disappeared onto the float. He heard the monster make one last scream before he heard a popping noise.

"Annabeth!" She didn't answer at first, but then she peaked her head over the side again. "Did you kill the monster?"

"Yeah!"

He still heard the weird noise. "Then what's that sound?"

She didn't answer, but Percy could tell by their declining height that the float had popped, and they were aiming straight towards the East River. Looking back up at Annabeth, he could see the float rapidly losing air and they made a sudden shift upwards before falling fast.

Percy lost his footing and his leg slid through the loop until it was looped around his knee. Feeling himself falling out of the rope, he bent his leg so that he was hanging upside down by the joint of his knee. While facing the ground, he noticed hundreds of people all looking up at the float and screaming. Turning his head, he noticed that the float was about to hit the river.

"Percy get off the float!" He heard Annabeth call to him before seeing her jump about fifty feet into the water below. He looked back up to the leg he was dangling from and straightened it, hoping he would slide out of the loop, but the float was falling too fast and he plunged into the water, completely covered by the float, and started to sink.

He was losing his breath, and could no longer see where his leg was. He was entangled in the float, and was starting to panic. After about a minute of frantically trying to free himself from the float, his movements started to slow until his vision became fuzzy, and he blacked out.

-PJO-PJO-

"Percy!" Annabeth dived back under the water but only made it about five feet before someone grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back up. She fought against them, but they held their grip. Her right leg was stinging, obviously hurt in the impact against the water.

In a few minutes she was out of the water, sitting on the street a few feet from the river with a man putting his jacket around her. She was shivering in the November weather. By the time she calmed down enough to listen to what he was saying, she realized other people were in the water, making attempts to swim down to the float.

"It's alright. You're okay. People are trying to help your friend. It's okay-" She put her arms around herself, trying to keep warm. The man rubbed her arms, attempting to warm her up.

"I got him!" Annabeth frantically tried to stand up, but the man held her down. She vaguely heard the man next to her call people over and then had two women come up to her, attempting to warm her as well. The man stood up and ran over to the edge of the river where a dozen people had gathered.

She saw a few people reach down and through the cluster, she saw Percy's wet form being pulled over the barrier and placed on the street. While a few people were helping get others out of the river, she saw the man that helped her checking his breathing. A couple others knelt down around him and she heard the man say, "he's not breathing."

Annabeth jumped up and pushed away the women's hands trying to grab her. She took a step but faltered when she tried to put weight on her hurt leg. One of the women put her arm around Annabeth's back and helped her walk the few feet over to the small group. As she knelt down next to Percy, she heard another man say, "he has a pulse."

"Percy..." She whispered, looking at his wet face.

"I know CPR." One of the women spoke up. She pushed her hair out of her face quickly and tilted Percy's head back and began mouth-to-mouth. After a few seconds, she began chest compressions. When she stopped for a quick second, one of the men leaned down and put his ear over Percy's mouth. He shook his head, and the woman tried mouth-to-mouth again.

Sitting back up, she put her hands on his chest again, when he started to cough. He scrunched his eyes as water started to come out of his mouth. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the woman turned him over onto his side. A jacket had somehow made it's way on top of him and the man that helped her started to warm his shoulders.

Annabeth called out his name, and after a minute of coughing and then just catching his breath, he opened his eyes and looked up. He smiled and closed his eyes again.

"Hey Wisegirl..." He choked out and then coughed. She smiled, just glad he was alive, and leaned down.

"We," she whispered in his ear. "Are teaching you how to fly."


End file.
